Chapter 80: Three Women

For the golden variety show "Creating Idols," trainees from dozens of companies came to participate. Among them, there are 3 first-tier companies. Xingshi Entertainment has invested the most among these three and has the greatest chance of winning.

Looking at the initial layout, Shen Mingliu and Ji Kangdong possessed decent popularity before entering the competition; they had over a million Weibo followers and had appeared on quite a few variety shows, winning at the starting line.

As for Meng Yangguang, he is a seeded player, and the company also values him highly.

Judging by the momentum from the start, Shen Mingliu held the top spot, and Ji Kangdong was in second place. Li Fengshan, the boss of Xingshi Entertainment, was cheerful every day, tearing up several pairs of his secretary's stockings, regaining his former vigor.

That was until Luo Mo stood out, and Xingshi Entertainment lost a Meng Yangguang.

Then, Luo Mo activated a "slaughtering" mode, forcing Ji Kangdong's ranking to slide until today, when he was completely overtaken by Luo Mo.

Li Fengshan was so angry that he tore up several more pairs of stockings belonging to two female secretaries in the past few days.

Joy, stockings suffer. Sorrow, stockings suffer.

The company's initial investment, judging by the current situation, has at least half gone down the drain.

Moreover, the joint 【Anti-Explosion】 against Luo Mo did not achieve very good results.

Watching him build a high building, watching him feast guests, watching his building collapse... that doesn't exist.

This kid named Luo Mo is determined to build a skyscraper, a building that reaches the sky!

Most importantly, Li Fengshan looked at the data growth of Luo Mo during this period; his data growth is too fast.

Although everyone opened up a huge gap in votes in the early stages, judging by Luo Mo's momentum, he has already set his sights on first place!

The data team has analyzed it; if there are no accidents, Luo Mo will overtake Shen Mingliu in two weeks at the latest.

If any major events happen within these two weeks, he might overtake him even faster!

Since Shen Mingliu performed poorly in "Creating Idols"... well, actually, he performed okay, at least stronger than other trainees, it's just that he can't compare to Luo Mo.

In other words, once he is overtaken, due to the gap in stage charisma, no matter how much money Xingshi Entertainment spends to build momentum for Shen Mingliu, it is impossible to win back the votes!

His personal charisma is too far behind, unless he can make some contribution to humanity, to Earth.

Judging by the current traffic and popularity, Shen Mingliu and Ji Kangdong combined cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Luo Mo.

"Has the dust settled?" Li Fengshan only felt his temples throbbing.

At this moment, his phone rang.

Li Fengshan answered the phone irritably, and in just two minutes, his expression changed drastically.

He thought it was the endgame, but he didn't expect a glimmer of hope!

The data team in the company discovered that Pineapple TV seems to have had something happen with Luo Mo.

The sense of smell of people in the industry is always quite sensitive.

Many of Luo Mo's personal videos have been taken down on Pineapple TV, and the audience and netizens have not yet reacted.

Because these video platforms, although their business practices are very ugly—like VIP early access, paid Advanced On-Demand, unskippable ads, and endless annoying tricks—they do a very good job with surface appearances.

If you click to watch Luo Mo's previous personal videos from 【History Records】, the video shows it has been taken down, and below it will be a small sentence: "Little Master, due to a technical glitch, Little Pineapple is currently rushing to repair it. Please wait patiently."

The most disgusting thing is that Pineapple TV seems to feel that if only Luo Mo has a glitch, it looks a bit special, so they also took down the personal videos of Tong Shu, who has the best relationship with Luo Mo.

Besides these two popular contestants, there are 3 already eliminated nobodies used as cover.

But Li Fengshan knows clearly that it's a technical glitch my foot; this is a forced takedown!

"There's something going on here! There's something fishy!" Li Fengshan's mouth curled upward.

It was just already very late today, so it was inconvenient to contact Pineapple.

He prepared to contact them tomorrow.

In the industry, Pineapple is the top-tier existence.

It is both a video platform and one of the four major companies.

He thought he might be able to stir up trouble from within and see if he could achieve the effect of a strong alliance.

"Judging by the current situation, this loser Meng Yangguang won't make it into the top nine; he can't debut as a group."

"But Shen Mingliu and Ji Kangdong will both sign a three-year group contract with Pineapple."

"We can appropriately concede profits to seek a win-win situation," Li Fengshan's mind began to stir.

In the end, it turned into one thing—today, no black silk, only flesh-colored silk.

The next day, at ten in the morning, Ning Dan received yesterday's data for "Creating Idols."

"It hit a new high again." Ning Dan smiled slightly, very satisfied with this.

With the broadcast of the program, the overall heat is constantly rising.

Just like last night, among the top twenty Weibo Hot Searches, 8 items were related to "Creating Idols," which can be said to have almost occupied half the territory.

Among them, 5 were related to "Xi," and three items even made it into the top ten of Weibo Hot Searches.

And this novel stage went straight to the number one spot on the Hot Search!

In this, there was a little money spent by Xin Yu and the production team, but more importantly, it was the super-high heat of the stage video itself!

On the Weibo Hot Search list, a character will be displayed after the entry to prove its heat.

Displaying 【Hot】 means the heat is quite good.

Displaying 【Boiling】 means the heat is very high.

And for the "Xi" stage, what is displayed behind it is 【Explosive】!

Usually, what follows this character is a top-tier piece of gossip in the industry. These days, things like cheating might not even be worthy of the 【Explosive】 character, unless it's the kind with immense fame.

Gossip in the entertainment industry is endless, and it's becoming more magical and bizarre; the gossip-eating masses have started to become a bit picky.

If it's punishable, say it's punishable; if it's not, say it's not!

Ning Dan shifted her plump hips on the sofa, letting herself half-recline, and continued to check the data and reports.

Soon, her brows furrowed slightly.

Because employees provided feedback, Pineapple TV took down some videos of several contestants.

And in some promotional resources, Luo Mo and Tong Shu, these two popular contestants, were inexplicably removed.

Ning Dan has been producing shows for so many years and has collaborated with all four major domestic video platforms, so how could she not understand the tricks of the trade?

Moreover, this matter happened right after Zheng Quan met with Luo Mo, so everything was not hard to guess.

Originally, the cooperation with Pineapple this time was not particularly pleasant.

Everyone is just here to cooperate, why are you bringing personal feelings into it?

Ning Dan really has no interest in this person, Wang Shisong.

She has been in the entertainment industry for so long and has seen too many messy things, which has caused her personal values to be impacted many times, leading to a faint tendency toward being unmarried.

She personally does not want to get married or have children; she just wants to live her life more brilliantly.

She would not consider Wang Shisong at all; this man has been divorced twice and has 5 children, and if you add in the illegitimate children outside, you might not be able to count them on both hands.

Why bother becoming a stepmother to over a dozen children?

What's more, Ning Dan finds that certain air about him quite repulsive. This air is not only reflected in his home life but also in his corporate management.

Later, everyone saw how the situation developed. The clever Penguin Video stepped in, and "Creating Idols" changed from a single-platform broadcast to a dual-platform joint broadcast; one can see how formidable Ning Dan's methods are.

"Is this an attempt to knock Luo Mo down a peg and vent some anger on him in the process?" Ning Dan speculated.

Whether based on personal feelings or considerations for future development prospects, Ning Dan does not think that Luo Mo signing with Pineapple is a good choice.

Ning Dan leaned halfway on the sofa, her body's curves looking very alluring. She was wearing a skirt suit today, and due to her side-leaning posture, the hem of the skirt had shifted upward slightly.

This woman is a bit conflicted right now.

"No one outside knows that I didn't have Luo Mo sign the group-formation agreement," Ning Dan thought to herself.

This point certainly cannot be told to the outside world; otherwise, what would be the point of this group-formation show?

If this matter were to spread, it would trigger a huge storm!

As for companies like Xingshi Entertainment, if they found out about this news, they would definitely make an issue out of it.

To tell the truth, it wasn't signed at the beginning because it wasn't necessary.

In the group-formation agreement, there are obligations, but there are also resources.

The contestant bears these obligations, and the production team must also fulfill the promised resources.

Even if a contestant is eliminated, they will still have some small resources to take, which is why everyone flocks to this show.

The initial plan was just to pull in someone to make up the numbers; the goal was to have someone easy to control. Anyway, they would be eliminated in the first round, so what connection would that have to forming a group?

As for not letting Luo Mo sign it now, that is Ning Dan's own little bit of selfishness; she has more ideas regarding Luo Mo.

Giving Luo Mo more choices also gives her more opportunities.

She really treats Luo Mo like a treasure now; no, he is simply a divine artifact!

"Looking at it now, this move was the right one," Ning Dan thought.

In fact, Pineapple will soon discover that Luo Mo does not have a group-formation agreement.

After all, although this contract is handled by the production team, it is mainly signed with Pineapple.

However, based on Ning Dan's understanding of Wang Shisong, this man will not think this is a big deal.

He has always held himself in high regard, believing that he is a god within the entertainment industry who can directly influence the life, death, and future of others.

In reality, although there is an element of exaggeration here, he does indeed possess such power.

From the perspective of interests, the resources in the group-formation agreement are also beyond imagination.

From the very beginning, the goal of "Creating Idols" was to create several first-tier traffic male stars and then bundle them into a group.

Traffic, after all, is best suited for making a quick buck.

So Pineapple set up a lot of resources and connected to a huge number of projects.

These are all very tempting.

Wang Shisong does not believe that anyone can resist the temptation of these resources and projects.

To put it bluntly, even if another company promised you an S-Class Contract, do you think their S-Class Contract can compare to these resources of mine?

It's far off!

After all, these resources and projects are connected in the form of a 9-member boy group—the power of nine people!

If you sign with another company, even if they give you an unprecedented S-Class Contract, as long as you give up the group formation on my side, you will still lose everything.

Whoever doesn't sign is a fool.

Since that is the case, is it hard to just use these three years as a carrot and stick to sign Luo Mo over completely?

Young people, just need to soften up a bit.

For these few years, don't be in a rush to make money; work hard for the company for a few years first, and the treatment will be raised later!

If you don't soften up and don't listen, during these three years of group activities, we will directly waste three years of your time, make you fulfill your obligations, run your legs off, give you all the tiring work, and not necessarily give you any exposure—directly using a set of 【Xuezang】!

Smart people do smart things, OK?

Thinking of this, a cold sneer appeared on Ning Dan's face.

"How the cooperation would work was decided from the very beginning."

"If it weren't for Luo Mo's sudden rise, Shen Mingliu would probably have debuted in the C-Position, and wouldn't he have taken the resources of both Xingshi and Pineapple?"

"It's just that at that time, it would be Xingshi and Pineapple bickering with each other, and Pineapple would pressure Xingshi to make some concessions."

"Now the main thing is that Luo Mo has no company behind him, so their appetite has grown, and they want to swallow him whole," Ning Dan rubbed the bridge of her nose.

What choice Luo Mo will make, Ning Dan does not know.

But she can tell that this young man is someone with a strong sense of his own mind.

She admires him very much; she has never admired a man like this before.

After taking a few deep breaths, Ning Dan called her female assistant in.

"Send someone to communicate with Pineapple, just communicate about the matter of taking down these videos of Luo Mo," Ning Dan said.

Before the female assistant left, Ning Dan called her back, hesitated for a long time, then sighed and said: "Be a bit nicer in your attitude, say more nice things."

This was equivalent to the production team bowing their heads slightly to Pineapple to protect Luo Mo, and it might not even be useful.

Wang Shisong, this man, was too overbearing.

But Ning Dan still chose to give it a try.

In reality, was Ning Dan herself not overbearing? She had always been a tyrant on the recording set.

Ning Dan looked at the assistant and finally said: "Contact Penguin as well; they should have already seen the abnormality on Pineapple's side. I want to know Penguin's attitude."

Who would have thought that the situation of a three-legged standoff would actually provide some room for maneuver.

If it had been exclusively broadcast on Pineapple TV, Luo Mo would have been completely at their mercy!

Ning Dan looked up at the ceiling and murmured: "Luo Mo, oh Luo Mo, the choice is now in your hands; this is all I can do."

………

………

On the other side, Xinyu began to hold a meeting.

Shen Shaoqiu cast a vote in favor regarding the matter of Luo Mo.

Shareholder Gao followed with a vote in favor, while Li was still hesitant and ultimately abstained.

The remaining shareholders and executives voted one after another, and ultimately, by a narrow margin, it was decided to grant Luo Mo an S-level Contract!

As the helmsman of Xinyu, Shen Shaoqiu publicly expressed his thoughts after the vote.

"Xinyu's development up to now is actually at a bottleneck period."

"Some of our businesses and resources need to be expanded."

"Take fashion resources as an example; if you want to cooperate with top international luxury brands and sign the highest-level contract—I mean the highest-level endorsement, not those 'Brand Friend' or 'Pinpai Miusi' titles people use to gild themselves—only a Top Traffic or a Super First-line Singer Superstar can do it."

"Some top domestic resources are the same."

"The four major companies in the industry are actually forming a barrier, and our hands cannot reach in for the time being."

"Everyone, I personally feel that we should appropriately show some boldness."

"To forge our own—Xinyu's own—Top Traffic!"

After the meeting ended, Shen Shaoqiu contacted his precious daughter, told her the thing she had been looking forward to for a long time, and had someone send the contract to his daughter's email.

Listening to his daughter's screams and cheers on the other end of the phone, along with her repeated "Long live Dad," made him feel a bit dazed.

"These young people, boys and girls, could there really be something going on between them?" The old father, who was diligently cultivating his little cabbage, began to worry.

Thinking of this, he felt even more that signing Luo Mo was the right choice.

At least everything would be under his own nose.

This limping old man's gaze hardened, and he walked step by step toward his office.

………

Shen Yinuo's screaming while on the phone startled Jiang Ningxi.

Although this best friend of hers was always full of vitality and had as much energy as a dog about to tear the house down, she rarely lost her composure like this.

The cool-tempered Jiang Ningxi asked after Shen Yinuo finished her call: "What's wrong? What good thing did President Shen promise you again?"

Shen Yinuo pulled Jiang Ningxi over, reached out to touch the Leg Fairy's long legs, and said: "Jiang Jiang, great news! The company agreed to Luo Mo's conditions!"

Jiang Ningxi swatted Shen Yinuo's thieving hand away, stunned for a moment, and said: "Agreed to S-level? And agreed to let him open a studio?"

"Yes!" Shen Yinuo excitedly reached her thieving hand toward Jiang Ningxi's perky buttocks again and said: "How about it? Should we use this to ask him for a few more songs? Hehe!"

Jiang Ningxi was a bit lost in thought.

"They actually agreed..." she said in her heart.

"Are we going to... are we going to be in the same company as him?"

"My First Love Boyfriend Meets Me at the Company Years Later and Becomes a Colleague."

"Let's go! We're going to find him now!" Shen Yinuo stood up and pulled Jiang Ningxi along.

Along the way, Jiang Ningxi looked out the window, still feeling that everything was magical.

She had already been working hard in the entertainment industry for a while.

Yet Luo Mo was still a trainee, not even officially debuted, and he was already standing at a new height.

Starting from his own traffic and popularity, he was already stronger than Jiang Ningxi.

He was even so powerful that if he gave her a song to sing, she could be so happy that she wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Most importantly, Jiang Ningxi could feel the change in her own mindset.

Just now, when Shen Yinuo pulled her out to find Luo Mo, she had specifically changed her clothes.

This was the most Deadly part!

In fact, although there was no program recording today, they had already made an appointment with Luo Mo to meet and chat about some matters related to the song "Daughter Kingdom".

So when she got up in the morning, Jiang Ningxi spent an hour doing her makeup, an hour washing her hair, and half an hour matching her outfit.

Even in this situation, just before leaving, the thought that flashed through her mind was: "It seems the other outfit looks better."

Then, she struggled and changed into another one, putting on over-the-knee socks on her perfectly proportioned, stunning long legs.

Doing makeup, washing hair, matching clothes—these were all things many young girls did before a date.

These processes were actually very time-consuming and required a lot of effort.

She even had to agonize over what scent of perfume to spray.

A young girl might spend several hours just to meet you once.

And what makes a young girl suddenly realize and see through her own heart is—actually, I was happy during these few hours of preparation.

Very, very, very happy...

……

(PS: Chapter two, 5000+ words, requesting monthly votes for the 10,000-word update!)

(End of chapter)